The New Age in Publishing Diana Flegal with Alton Gansky

At Blue Ridge Christian Autumn in the Mountain’s Novel Retreat last week, Alton Gansky spoke on the new age of publishing.

I think what he says bears repeating and with his permission, I have listed amongst this post, the highlights of his message.

This age more than any other allows the creative to create and get things into the marketplace.  Self publishing is just one slice of the publishing pie.

Options abound.

Traditional Publishing or Legacy Publishing is a publisher that offers an advance to the author, and a percent royalty on each books sold AFTER the sales have paid back the advance. They provide professional editing and pay for the formatting and book cover design of your book.

Vanity Presses have a bad reputation, and it is well deserved. They will publish anything written by anyone on any subject as long as the writer is willing to pay for it. Product improvement is minimal and the author is required to buy a minimum number of copies. The writer is the primary warehouse and distribution channel for the book. Some vanity presses provide a kind of distribution through their websites.

Small Presses are royalty paying publishers that generally do not offer an advance but pay a higher royalty to the author than traditional publishers. Many authors have found a happy publishing home with the Small Press model.

Many well published authors are taking books that have not found a home in traditional avenues or a book that has gone out of print and are publishing with the small presses. Traditionally published authors that also self-publish are called Hybrid authors. An Indy author is one who chooses to forego traditional publishing to maintain creative control or to publish something that doesn’t fit the current market.

Are you considering self- publishing?

While the stigma once attached to it is not the same as it was five years ago, writers need to beware.

The key to self publishing is to have the right motive.

• A good motivation is: To get good content out because you can, and/ or you have time sensitive material.
• Bad motivation: I want to be published and I can pay to make it happen.

Too many authors get impatient and publish before their story is fully developed or their manuscript has been professionally edited. Keep in mind, if one has a 100,000 word manuscript, the average length of an historical fiction, and it is 99% accurate, you will have 1000 typos.    

Seek out a good professional editor. Slow down and be sure you are putting your best possible work out.

Exciting times abound.  

More can be found about Alton Gansky, Litt.D. at Gansky.Communications

www.altongansky.com

Conferences:

Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference

Follow Alton on social media:

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YouTube videos and interviews

What is a "hybrid author?" by Terry Burns

Well, I suppose I'm one.

A hybrid author is a relatively new term and it means an author who has one foot in the traditional publishing world and one foot in the Indy publishing or self- publishing world.

In addition to being an agent, I have books in print from significant size traditional publishers, from small and independent houses, and I have self published projects. I've done magazine articles, have written online content, done greeting cards and been in a number of collections and anthologies. I guess that qualifies me.

How do we feel about clients that want to self publish? We are supportive of them. Most of our representation contracts are for "all book length work," which of course includes novellas, so to self-publish we have to exempt the project from the contract. We don't look to make money on anything we didn't handle. If there are other works to represent we continue to represent them for those projects. If there isn't anything else to represent, well, it's hard to have a contract to represent nothing. Joyce is looking at a new Amazon program that works through agents and offers some things that authors don't otherwise get. That could change things some, more details on this coming.

I had a client that turned down a substantial house contract which included a good sized advance. She pulled all her projects to self publish. I'll tell you the truth, I thought she had made a mistake. Turns out she had a rare gift for online sales and promotion and has made significantly more money in the long run. Some people can do that. Unfortunately a lot of others jump into doing it only to discover that they don't have the necessary skills to do what they need to do to be able to be successful.

When I represent my clients I encourage them to go with traditional publishing as the first option. If we fail to find a home for them there then they can decide what the next step is for them. If they do have the skill set to do it they can make more money self-publishing. If they don't a small house or Independent Press can get them published, but of course earn part of the proceeds for it. Or if they don't have the skills there are places where they can contract for the assistance that they need.

The bottom line is the decision to self-publish should not be a knee-jerk reaction to getting a couple of rejections. It should be a business decision where you look at what will be required of you and whether you have the ability to do it or not. It can be the right decision if you do, just keep in mind that a majority of those who try do not achieve the results that they want.

So the question is "are you one of those with the necessary abilities?" If so you may can even firmly plant your feet in both markets . . . and become a hybrid author.

The Platform Debate for Emerging Hybrid Authors by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

Lately, I've seen lots of posts on the emerging trend of more writers becoming self-published and traditionally published authors turning to a combination of self-publishing and traditional as new Hybrid Authors. There are excellent reasons that have been given for pursing both avenues of publication.

If you follow Digital Book World, they are a wealth of information for anyone interested in self-publishing ebooks. Lots of agents and editors have written blog posts defending traditional publication. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article listing advantages and disadvantages to self-publishing on Midlist Authors Avoiding the Sinking Sand. But what about Hybrid Publishing? What are the advantages of doing both?

Some of these authors have arrived to the Hybrid status by doing well on their own as self-published and catching the eye of a publisher that later offered them a traditional publishing contract. Others have gone in the opposite direction and worked hard to become traditionally published. Later these traditional authors released old books as ebooks when they earned back the rights to their backlist or came up with a unique idea that a traditional publisher didn't want to risk investing in and the author decided to self-publish it.

Regardless of how these authors arrived to Hybrid status, it is safe to say that many are finding this third option a successful route with less of the stigma that was once associated with it. As time marches on and a new generation of authors, editors, agents and publishers are raised up in the digital culture without the "personal experience" of how things once were in print only, I would venture to say that the old stigma on these Hybrid Authors may blend in so much that it disappears altogether.

Why do I say this? Because history does repeat itself. We have seen similar circumstances in various business industries, cultures, inventions, and technologies. What the older generations continue to resist and refuse to adapt, new generations will carry forward and perfect.

I am NOT saying that the stigma of poorly developed stories, lack of good grammar and editing will miraculously disappear or that all self-published books are like this, but what I AM saying is that Hybrid Authors have proven themselves in the traditional market. Unlike self-published only authors who have not proven themselves in the traditional market, Hybrid Authors have this validation and are branding themselves in a new light.

The key to their success will be the same as it is with traditionally published midlist authors: Platform, Distribution & Sales. 

If Hybrid Authors can be successful at building their platform and marketing their books to promote sales--they will be successful either way--but keep in mind that everyone's measure of success is different. For instance, I'm not used to living on a medical doctor's income, so my definition of success in relation to what I can live on may be less than a medical doctor who transitions into being an author. It's the same with a school teacher vs a corporate attorney.

What about you? Do you think you could build your platform and market your books enough to be self-published, an Hybrid Author, or a midlist author? Do you think the stigma of self-publication will go away or is already diminishing? How much does marketing and platform pay a role?

Other Sources:
Expanding Options for Publishing: The New Hybrid Author
New York Times Article on Authors Going Indie Fails to Mention Main Consideration in Publishing
Why Big-Time Authors Jump Ship
5 Surprises About Self-Publishing
How Can I Make More Money Via Traditional or Self-Pub?